http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-you-are-being-lied-to-about-pirates-1225817.html


[center]You Are Being Lied to About Pirates[/center]

Who imagined that in 2009, the world's governments would be declaring a new War on Pirates? As you read this, the British Royal Navy - backed by the ships of more than two dozen nations, from the US to China - is sailing into Somalian waters to take on men we still picture as parrot-on-the-shoulder pantomime villains. They will soon be fighting Somalian ships and even chasing the pirates onto land, into one of the most broken countries on earth. But behind the arrr-me-hearties oddness of this tale, there is an untold scandal. The people our governments are labeling as "one of the great menace of our times" have an extraordinary story to tell -- and some justice on their side.

Pirates have never been quite who we think they are. In the "golden age of piracy" - from 1650 to 1730 - the idea of the pirate as the senseless, savage thief that lingers today was created by the British government in a great propaganda-heave. Many ordinary people believed it was false: pirates were often rescued from the gallows by supportive crowds. Why? What did they see that we can't? In his book Villains of All nations, the historian Marcus Rediker pores through the evidence to find out. If you became a merchant or navy sailor then - plucked from the docks of London's East End, young and hungry - you ended up in a floating wooden Hell. You worked all hours on a cramped, half-starved ship, and if you slacked off for a second, the all-powerful captain would whip you with the Cat O' Nine Tails. If you slacked consistently, you could be thrown overboard. And at the end of months or years of this, you were often cheated of your wages.

Pirates were the first people to rebel against this world. They mutinied against their tyrannical captains - and created a different way of working on the seas. Once they had a ship, the pirates elected their captains, and made all their decisions collectively. They shared their bounty out in what Rediker calls "one of the most egalitarian plans for the disposition of resources to be found anywhere in the eighteenth century." They even took in escaped African slaves and lived with them as equals. The pirates showed "quite clearly - and subversively - that ships did not have to be run in the brutal and oppressive ways of the merchant service and the Royal navy." This is why they were popular, despite being unproductive thieves.

The words of one pirate from that lost age - a young British man called William Scott - should echo into this new age of piracy. Just before he was hanged in Charleston, South Carolina, he said: "What I did was to keep me from perishing. I was forced to go a-pirating to live." In 1991, the government of Somalia - in the Horn of Africa - collapsed. Its nine million people have been teetering on starvation ever since - and many of the ugliest forces in the Western world have seen this as a great opportunity to steal the country's food supply and dump our nuclear waste in their seas.

Yes: nuclear waste. As soon as the government was gone, mysterious European ships started appearing off the coast of Somalia, dumping vast barrels into the ocean. The coastal population began to sicken. At first they suffered strange rashes, nausea and malformed babies. Then, after the 2005 tsunami, hundreds of the dumped and leaking barrels washed up on shore. People began to suffer from radiation sickness, and more than 300 died. Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the UN envoy to Somalia, tells me: "Somebody is dumping nuclear material here. There is also lead, and heavy metals such as cadmium and mercury - you name it." Much of it can be traced back to European hospitals and factories, who seem to be passing it on to the Italian mafia to "dispose" of cheaply. When I asked Ould-Abdallah what European governments were doing about it, he said with a sigh: "Nothing. There has been no clean-up, no compensation, and no prevention."

At the same time, other European ships have been looting Somalia's seas of their greatest resource: seafood. We have destroyed our own fish-stocks by over-exploitation - and now we have moved on to theirs. More than $300m worth of tuna, shrimp, lobster and other sea-life is being stolen every year by vast trawlers illegally sailing into Somalia's unprotected seas. The local fishermen have suddenly lost their livelihoods, and they are starving. Mohammed Hussein, a fisherman in the town of Marka 100km south of Mogadishu, told Reuters: "If nothing is done, there soon won't be much fish left in our coastal waters."

This is the context in which the men we are calling "pirates" have emerged. Everyone agrees they were ordinary Somalian fishermen who at first took speedboats to try to dissuade the dumpers and trawlers, or at least wage a 'tax' on them. They call themselves the Volunteer Coastguard of Somalia - and it's not hard to see why. In a surreal telephone interview, one of the pirate leaders, Sugule Ali, said their motive was "to stop illegal fishing and dumping in our waters, We don't consider ourselves sea bandits. We consider sea bandits [to be] those who illegally fish and dump in our seas and dump waste in our seas and carry weapons in our seas." William Scott would understand those words.

No, this doesn't make hostage-taking justifiable, and yes, some are clearly just gangsters - especially those who have held up World Food Programme supplies. But the "pirates" have the overwhelming support of the local population for a reason. The independent Somalian news-site WardherNews conducted the best research we have into what ordinary Somalis are thinking - and it found 70 percent "strongly supported the piracy as a form of national defence of the country's territorial waters." During the revolutionary war in America, George Washington and America's founding fathers paid pirates to protect America's territorial waters, because they had no navy or coastguard of their own. Most Americans supported them. Is this so different?

Did we expect starving Somalians to stand passively on their beaches, paddling in our nuclear waste, and watch us snatch their fish to eat in restaurants in London and Paris and Rome? We didn't act on those crimes - but when some of the fishermen responded by disrupting the transit-corridor for 20 percent of the world's oil supply, we begin to shriek about "evil." If we really want to deal with piracy, we need to stop its root cause - our crimes - before we send in the gun-boats to root out Somalia's criminals.

The story of the 2009 war on piracy was best summarised by another pirate, who lived and died in the fourth century BC. He was captured and brought to Alexander the Great, who demanded to know "what he meant by keeping possession of the sea." The pirate smiled, and responded: "What you mean by seizing the whole earth; but because I do it with a petty ship, I am called a robber, while you, who do it with a great fleet, are called emperor." Once again, our great imperial fleets sail in today - but who is the robber?

@topic,

Very thought provoking piece.  I've never looked at it from that point of view even though I've mixed with many Somalis here in Minnesota who could have possibly hinted that this was the case.  This is either a well-written fabrication or a point of reference in putting this piracy issue into proper context.

The points made in the article are salient and in keeping with Hari's reputation for puncturing many people's glib presumptions about history and current affairs.

However, a few points need to be made. The title and content of the article suggests a campaign of dishonesty has been waged on this issue. That, in effect, the whole piracy issue is based on a lie. If I may ask, where is the lie? Is it in the fact that most people are unaware of of the fishing/dumping issue or in the categorization of these armed Somalis as ''pirates'' ?

With regards to the fishing/dumping issue. Firstly, it's important to note that this is a problem that plagues many developing nations, particularly African nations. There is a causal link between the level of dumping/fishing and the impoverishment of the victim nation. The poorest countries, by reason of their lack of resources, suffer the most. That people are unaware of this, whether in relation to Somalia in particular or developing nations in general, is not proof of a lie but proof of ignorance. It is not as if European officials have totally denied these things, for God's sake, it was only a couple of months ago that the Economist magazine did a special feature on it and the Europeans openly acknowledged this problem, albeit, with a reluctance to tackle it which verges on acquiescence.

Now, that these issues initially prompted the Somali reaction is certainly true but the reality is that as things stand today, the issue of fishing/dumping has become tangential as a cause of the piracy. The piracy issue has taken a life of its own and is no longer a case of self-defense.

Let's put this way, if all these Somalis did was patrol their waters to board and search or deter the miscreants' ships, nobody will be talking of piracy. It is called piracy because ships are being picked off at random and not released until the owners cough up a sizable sum irrespective of the owners' cargo or intentions . That is the definition of piracy.

That this problem originally arose out of a genuine grievance is now besides the point. The proximate cause of the current piracy is wealth acquisition not self-defense. That is why it's called piracy and that is not a lie. That Somalis see it differently is non-sequitur, it's as relevant as noting that Germans once saw the Nazis as merely defending and upholding national dignity and interests.

Hari's article is crucial though in highlighting the need for the Europeans, Chinese and Arab nations involved in the fishing/dumping issues to give it the full attention it deserves and to stop acquiescing to it .This problem plagues many African nations and we should not wait until it breeds a piracy industry before we act.

ogasa, this no be court of law o!

All this argument wey you dey make, na proof by induction, contradiction or abi na proof by contrapositive?

Anyway, wasn't there a story about dumping of nuclear waste off Nigerian shores?

This whole piracy skizzle reminds me of how Naija Delta militancy first started.

@Ibime

The purpose of the politics thread no be to argue to your heart's delight?

The issue mirrors many other issues, whether Niger-Delta or even the ''Bakassi Boys'' vigilante ruckus. A common case of where genuine grievances are hijacked to the extent they no longer have much to do with the initial cause.

This is a serious issue.

After reading this, I am beginning to understand, and probably support, the so-called pirates. We never heard about the dumping and looting of Somalian sea resources until the pirates started operating. Western countries dont care if Africans all die and starve as long as westerners can enjoy the simple comforts of life.

We need to start thinking about the way we view things rather than jumping in support of the west everytime they sing a song. most people were beginning to see these pirates as the only evil people in thatsituation whereas the looting and dumping by foreigners was never given that amount of coverage.

.

thanks to this article, i never really saw things from the point of view of the Somalians. Perhaps we now have one more clue as to why the "international community" is not so interested in helping the Somalians form a government.

JustGood:

This is a serious issue. After reading this, I am beginning to understand, and probably support, the so-called pirates. [b]We never heard about the dumping and looting of Somalian sea resources until the pirates started operating. [/b]Western countries don't care if Africans all die and starve as long as westerners can enjoy the simple comforts of life.

You never heard about it but this issue was in the news at the time. The BBC did many pieces on it. Problem is, most Africans are unaware of what goes in Africa but you can't blame the West for your own self imposed ignorance if you don't seek out news on your own continent.

March 3 2005

The United Nations says last December's tsunami has spread hazardous waste that has been illegally dumped on the coast of Somalia.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2005/03/03/1314757.htm

February 23 2005

A spokesman for the United Nations Environment Program, Nick Nuttall, told VOA that for the past 15 years or so, European companies and others have used Somalia as a dumping ground for a wide array of nuclear and hazardous wastes.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2005/02/mil-050223-317cbc9a.htm

April 04 2005

Somalia authorities reported that nearly 300 people - a figure the humanitarian agencies dispute - were killed and thousands displaced by the tsunami waves, which were sparked by an undersea quake in Indonesia on December 26.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1356730/posts

The stories were in the public domain at the time. However, suggesting that the current piracy is somewhat self defense will be trampling on the truth. The warlords and Islamists who now arm and sponsor the pirates have long moved beyond that.

KenyanLady:

It's a total lies, fabrication!

Can you give us some details about what became of that particular story

There is no evidence that the Indian Ocean tsunami spread illegally dumped nuclear and toxic waste on Somalia's coast, the United Nations says. Samples taken from three locations in the Puntland region failed to identify any traces of toxic substances.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4321044.stm

In reality, like any public health scandal, it doesn't really matter to many Somalis whether the attribution of the deaths of 300 Somalis to the toxic waste was in fact baseless any more than the absence of evidence soothed Northerners' hostility to the polio vaccine  or British panic over the MMR vaccine.

Incidents of toxic dumping off the coast of Somalia remain an undisputed fact , even if people add ''spice'' to the stories, but to use it as some mitigatory justification for this piracy is to trample on the truth.

The Somalis themselves need to get their act together. It is for them to assert their authority over what is rightfully theirs. It is hardly the fault of the international community that Somali waters are not represented by a recognisable state. There is no ocean governance or fisheries policy. Somalian waters are truly open access, something which cannot be said for the territorial waters of any other state in the community of nations. Open access for fishing and yes, sadly, dumping of toxic waste!

But it is not because foreigners are trawling Somalis waters for fish, or dumping toxic waste, that Somali fishermen abandoned their fishing nets and acquired for themselves Kalashnikov AK47s. The Somalis have adopted a tradition of lawlessness and for them piracy is seen as the way to go. We should not sympathise with them, because it is they who have failed to put their house in order, when theirs is a relatively homogenous society that is spared all the diverse ethnic and cultural issues that other African countries have to contend with. Yet, despite all the difficulties, other peoples have been able to hold their countries together and exert authority over their waters. The Somalis have no excuse really.

You see how the western capitalist press do not report news of illegal fishing and waste material dumping in Somalia.l

They control the world press the God-damned CAPITALISTS. Its a war of deception and lies against poor people all over the world.

The capitalists have formed a Vampire Society called G8 where they plan out to suck all the resources from the poorer countries

The third world the so called periphery are involved in a conspricacy to facilitate neo-imperialism by creating every kind of dependency economic, cultural on the capitalists.

Some countries like Haiti are loosing doctors to richer countries leaving their own countries without medical staff so the people start to die earlier.

Nigeria is a very good example of brain drain. Capitalism is the mother of hopeless and greed. But it wont work without
the cooperation of corrupt third world leaders. We gotta kill off the vampires.

I read about this too and I was really pissed.
Imagine western countries bringing their large vessels and siphoning off the resources n fishes in very large quantities while leaving the poor somali fishermen with nothing to survive. Why didn't the media talk about this when they report on the somali pirates?
Imagine western countries bringing large vessels filled with toxic wastes and dumping them in the somali coasts and causing unassuming villagers to fall sick with all sorts of illnesses caused by toxic minerals and radiation. the western media won't report this.

The only news they report is some vacationing middle class family kept in hostage by somali pirates.
I really was pissed too when I found out how Somali pirates formed.

ifele:

You see how the western capitalist press do not report news of illegal fishing and waste material dumping in Somalia.l
They control the world press the God-damned CAPITALISTS. Its a war of deception and lies against poor people all over the world.
The capitalists have formed a Vampire Society called G8 where they plan out to suck all the resources from the poorer countries
The third world the so called periphery are involved in a conspricacy to facilitate neo-imperialism by creating every kind of dependency economic, cultural on the capitalists.
Some countries like Haiti are loosing doctors to richer countries leaving their own countries without medical staff so the people start to die earlier.
Nigeria is a very good example of brain drain. Capitalism is the mother of hopeless and greed. But it wont work without
the cooperation of corrupt third world leaders. We gotta kill off the vampires.

couldn't agree with you more.
When you hear that the west is sending "foreign aid" to african countries and you wonder why this aid hasn't brought the many countries out of poverty, this is why!
it's because it's to the western countries' advantage for some of these countries to remain in their conditions. and the "aid money" (90% of which goes back to the west anyways) can serve to clear guilty consciences.

really sad.

I thought every one knew about this theft? The blackman seems destined to suffer at the hands of nearly all the other inhabitants of the world.

^ lots of people besides blacks are also suffering. to me, the majority of the world is suffering at the hands of only a few powerful. But I agree that it seems blacks are suffering the most.